Saturday, 23 February 2008

The Apple!

There's an apple in my fruit bowl, and it was bought before Xmas, all red and shiny. Sam said she would eat it, as she only likes shiny red apples. But she didn't, and after a a couple of weeks, everything else in the fruit bowl had been eaten, and it sat there, shining, no duller than it was when it was bought.

And now, probably 8 weeks after it was bought, it's still there, red shiny and looking perfect.

What's wrong with that? I hear you ask, well actually, loads. You see, the apple is a red delicious, and way back I used to sell fruit and veg. There is one thing I can tell you for certain, the "delicious" apples are not terribly good "keepers". What I mean by this is , they don't store well, after a certain period of time, the skin begins to wrinkle slightly, and the flesh, if you bite into one is no longer crisp and juicy. Don't get me wrong, at the time I sold fruit and veg, you could still get English Golden Delicious, these apples had a very short season, about 4 weeks, but they were far better apples than their French counterparts, which I contend should be described as green apples, as they are neither golden nor delicious, (well the ones they send here aren't...they keep the good ones for themselves! Sorry, it's an EU dispute..food is supposed to be what it is described as!)

Similarly, the Red Delicious we had back then, had limited shelf life....so...WHY is this apple still red and shiny. I suspect it has been irradiated, but I was under the impression that if food was irradiated, it should state clearly that the food has been irradiated.

Anyway, I keep asking Sam "when are you going to eat that apple?" I think now she just wants to see how long it will stop red and shiny, and looking good enough to eat? (Not by me, am not a red apple person myself.) Oh, by the way! It's a USA Red Delicious. I'll report back when it starts to decay..if it ever does!

3 comments:

I can attest to the validity of these statements as I have seen the apple in question for myself. And if it looks perfect for THIS long and is from the US, I don't think I'll be eating ANY apples grown in the US ever again.